MALVERN CHASE. S3 



the parishes of the Chase that have not become subject to 

 enclosure acts, or been allotted according to the claims 

 made before the enclosure commissioners. But I believe 

 only Castle Morton, Great Malvern, Colwall, and Mathon 

 are now left exempt from later acts and orders of enclosure, 

 so it behoves the freeholders and commoners of Great 

 Malvern especially to see that they are not despoiled of 

 their rig/its, which are yearly lessening" 



By this order in Council, certain rights and claims 

 which had been advanced were reserved ; and the decree 

 was ratified and confirmed by Parliament 16th, Charles II. 

 The whole appearance and condition of the Chase is 

 now very different from what it was before its disaffores- 

 tation, two hundred and fifty years ago, " when the ' beasts 

 of venery ' strayed over its unenclosed woods, and when 

 the neighbouring occupiers of land were compelled under 

 the forest laws to submit to the visitations of stray deer 

 without daring to prevent trespasses, and a court sitting 

 at Hanley had jurisdiction over all matters appertaining 

 to the Chase, while the chief forester's axe was at times 

 brought down upon the neck of any unfortunate marauder 

 who could not show good cause for being found within the 

 sacred pale of ' the said Chase.' But almost to the close of 

 the last century the Chase was a great unenclosed waste, 

 for in the memory of men living but a few years since a 

 person could have ridden on horseback from Great 

 Malvern to the top of Bredon Hill and found no impedi- 

 ment to his course save only the passage of the Severn, 

 and that could be crossed at Upton Bridge. 



" If we now turn to regard the size of Malvern Chase as 

 at present, we shall find but few extensive commons or 

 wastes left within it, and still fewer vestiges of real forest 

 ground. In the present state of the country, when en- 

 closure has done almost all it can, with barren ground 

 converted into green meadows and cultivated fields that 

 now meet the view almost everywhere between the Hills 

 and the Severn, it is scarcely possible to realize the Forest 

 scenes of the British and Saxon times. Little, if any of 



